Conventionally, certain shielded connectors have a long, slender rectangular insulating housing made of an 1.0 insulating synthetic resin, and are attached to a circuit board so that the connectors can receive a mating connector from a direction that is substantially perpendicular to the surface of the circuit board. The shield member is installed on the outside of the housing and has plate surfaces that are substantially parallel to the direction from which the mating connector is received. For example, see Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 5-74522, Japanese Utility Model Application Kokai No. 6-54259 and Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 5-21111.
However, conventional shielded connectors of this type have proved to be unsatisfactory in the following respects: i. e., the shielding characteristics are inadequate, a high degree of dimensional precision is required for assembly, and the manufacturing process is complicated.
For example, in the connector described in Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 5-74522 mentioned above, two metal plates are installed as shield members on both sides of the housing; however, since there are no shield members on the ends of the housing, the shielding characteristics are inadequate. The connector described in Japanese Utility Model Application Kokai No. 6-54259 is equipped with a rectangular frame-form metal shield as a shield member, and therefore has good shielding characteristics; however, since the shield member is formed as a frame, a high degree of dimensional precision is required in order to attach this frame to the housing. In the connector described in Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 5-21111, the housing is shielded by applying a conductive plating to the outside of the housing; accordingly, although this connector similarly has good shielding characteristics, the manufacturing process is complicated so that the cost of the connector is increased.
Thus, the object of the present invention is to provide a shield type connector which solves all of the problems described above.